Wednesday, January 11, 2012

The president of the Maldives ordered the country’s upscale resorts
to reopen their spas on Wednesday pending a Supreme Court decision on
whether they violate Islam, just days after they were shut under
pressure from protesters led by an opposition party.

The court decision could be critical to the tourism-dependent island nation’s economic future.

“The government has decided we will open all spas and give all the
services to tourists which we have been giving before,” President
Mohammed Nasheed told The Associated Press by telephone.
“The tour operators were very worried” about the closure, he said.

Last
week, authorities ordered all spas to close following a protest in the
capital on Dec. 23 in which thousands of people called for a halt to
“anti-Islamic” activities including spas.

The protesters also
demanded that authorities halt the sale of alcohol on islands inhabited
by local people, stop plans to allow direct flights from Israel, and
demolish statues given by other countries to commemorate a South Asian
summit in November which they saw as idols.

“To be racist in any
way is detrimental to the tourism industry,” Nasheed said of the call to
halt Israeli flights. “This is not the way to go forward.”

Debates
on religious issues have intensified since a group vandalized a statue
given by Pakistan bearing the image of Buddha. In November a protest
followed a call by the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, Navi
Pillay, for the Maldives to end the flogging of women found to have had
sex outside marriage.

Nasheed has said he stands for a brand of
moderate Islam traditionally practiced in the country and that it is
vital to preserve tourism.